How to Uninstall Apps on Android

Installing an application on your Android based mobile phone is pretty easy, right? You simply open the Google Play Store on your phone, find the app that you want to download and install, and click the Install button to start downloading & installing the app. Can't be any simpler.

Uninstalling an application from an Android device is also relatively simple, but some new users may still need a little help to see how it is done. For that reason, I compiled a detailed tutorial to show how an app is uninstalled on an Android smartphone.

By the way, we shall make a clarification for the term "uninstall". As you may already know, you can remove an app (actually the shortcut to the app) from your device's homescreen or other screens by touching on the icon of that app and without lifting your finger, dragging the app icon onto the Remove button at the top right corner of the screen. This will remove the app shortcut from your phone's screen but not the app itself. The app will remain on your phone and you can place a shortcut to it at a later time again.

What we will do is to remove (uninstall) the app from your phone completely, in other words, delete it.

TIP: You may also find the following uninstallation related tutorials to be useful:

How to Uninstall Android Apps

We will be uninstalling the Instagram app from our phone in this tutorial. For demonstration purposes, I will be using a Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini with Android version 4.2.2. The process should be similar on various phone models and Android versions. You can check this tutorial to learn your phone's Android version.

Before we start the uninstallation process, please make sure that you really want to uninstall the app in question. Sometimes, uninstalling an app is not the only solution to whatever problem you are trying to solve. For example, if you have plans to use an app in the future but you are annoyed from its updates and notifications, you can simply disable its notifications and stop automatic updates. Another thing to pay attention is that some apps may have stored important information or files that you wouldn't want to lose, also make sure that you backed up any such information and files.

STEP 1: Open your phone and find the Settings button. Depending on your phone and user preferences, it may be on the homescreen or on the Apps screen.

STEP 2: On the Settings page, select the More tab on the top right corner and then select Application Manager from the list.

This will open the Application Manager where all the applications on your phone will be listed. Note that, the applications will be grouped in categories such as Downloaded, SD Card, Running and All.

STEP 3: Locate the app you want to uninstall from the list of apps in the Application Manager and tap on it.

If you can't find the app within the Downloaded section, also check SD Card and All tabs too.

You should now see the App Info page, where you can see useful details about the app such as its version, update and notification settings, storage, cache and permissions info. Before uninstalling the app, you can also clear its stored data and cache if you want.

STEP 4: On the App Info page, tap on the Clear data button to clear app's data. This will also clear app's cache. If you want to store the data but clear the cache, tap on Clear cache button instead of Clear data button.

STEP 5: Finally, when you are ready to uninstall the app, tap on the Uninstall button to start the uninstallation process.

This will remove the app from your phone. Note that uninstalling the Instagram app (or any other app that requires an account to use) will not delete your Instagram account. If you also want to delete your account, you will need to do that on the related support page of that app.